The Nikkei 225 is the stock-exchange index most closely associated with Japan’s 1989 asset-price bubble peak.
It reached an all-time closing high of 38,915.87 on December 29, 1989. The peak followed years of rapidly rising Japanese share and land prices, easy credit, speculative investment, and expectations that asset values would continue climbing.
After the bubble burst, Japanese shares and property prices fell for years. The Nikkei’s decline contributed to a prolonged period of weak growth and deflation often called Japan’s Lost Decades. The index did not recover its 1989 closing record for more than three decades.
The TOPIX is another major Japanese benchmark, so it is a frequent source of confusion. The Nikkei 225, however, is the index named in the best-known record of the bubble’s peak.